Shelf hardware



Sept. 29, 1959 s. SIMON SHELF HARDWARE Filed April 25. 1955 INVENTOR. HUEBNER, BEEHLER, WORREL a HERZIG,

I dTTORNEYS.

BY Q

SHELF HARDWARE Sidney Simon, Los Angeles, Calif. Application April 25, 1955, Serial No. 503,639

4 Claims. 01. 248-248) and slide-proof to guarantee against accidental tipping which usually results inpersonal injury and destruction of shelf contents. Furthermore, the shelf support should be capable of mass production at relatively low cost from materials that will not tarnish or corrode.

The shelf support United States PatentgO the shelf support should be safe and absolutely tilt-proof Accordingly, it is an important object of my invention to provide a shelf support that is capable of repeated,

'rapid and convenient installation on, and removal from, 'the side walls of a cabinet without the use of auxiliary fasteners or tools.

Another object is to provide a shelf support having the above-described desirable properties at low cost from strong, corrosion-resistant materials.

.Additional objects will become apparent from the following description.

Broadly Stated, my invention provides a shelf support made of a plate or sheet of metallic or non-metallic mavertical support plate and are adapted to engage grooves :cut into a vertical wall such as a cabinet wall.

The forwardend of the horizontal support portion is provided with a lip to prevent forward sliding of a supported shelf and the vertical support plate is provided with fingers to overlie the supported shelf and guarantee against lifting or tilting the shelf accidentally. A slit is out adjacent the lip on the horizontal support portion to impart resilience to the lip for ease of shelf installation and for safely locking the installed shelf in place.

A more detailed description of a specific embodiment of my invention is given with reference to the drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a partial perspective view showing two shelf supports mounted on the side walls of a cabinet and supporting a transparent shelf;

Figure 2 is a cross-sectional elevational view showing the shelf in position in the shelf support;

Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 33 of Figure 2; and

Figure 4 is a plan view of the shelf support, showing a horizontal support portion and horizontal tips of Support fingers.

The vertical support plate 10 is formed or cut from a sheet metal stamping, for example, to contain an upper tongue 11 and a lower tongue 12. The upper tongue 12 can be tightly slipped into slots 13 formed in vertical side walls 14. The material of support plate 10 adjacent upper tongue 11 is cut or punched out to form an opening 16 of sufficient width and length to readily aecommodate a raised portion 17 (Figures 2 and 3) 0f the side wall below a slot 13 in the vertical side walls ,14.

r Vertical support plates 10 can be made of any convenient shape, such as the generally triangular shape shown in the drawing, with lower tongue 12 at the apex of the triangle and upper tongue 11 at about the middle of the base of the triangle. At the top of the triangular support plate 10 is formed a horizontal shelf-supporting portion consisting of a rear section 18, a middle section 19 and a from section 21. The rear section 18 is the shortest of the three horizontal portions and has its forward edge 22 (Figures 1, 2 and 4) rounded or bent downward as shown. The middle section 19 is the longest of the three portions and is entirely in the horizontal plane for maximum support of the shelf 23. The front section 21 is of intermediate length and is provided with an upwardly extending lip 24, extending from the outer edge 26 almost to the top of triangular support plate 10,.but

spaced therefrom because of slit 27.

LAlso extending from the top portion of support plate 10 are two fingers 28 and 29 having their vertical portions 31 and 32,- respectively, in the same plane as that of support plate 10, and having horizontal tip portions 33 and .34, respectively, equidistant above the horizontal shelfsupporting sections 18, 19 and 21. Finger 28 is formed 45 between front and middle horizontal sections 21 and "horizontal sections 18 and 19. The height of the vertical 19 and finger 29 is formed between rear and middle portions 31 and 32 is made sufficient to conveniently accommodate "the thickness of shelf 23 (see Figures 2 and 3), but is not made great enough to permit slipping the bead 36 over the lip 24. It will be seen that lip 24 and fingers 28 and 29 retain the installed shelf 23 in position against accidental slippage forward or lifting upward and forward in a cabinet, such as a medicine cabinet. In other words, the shelf is tilt and slide-proof. Such accidental upward and forward movement of a shelf laden with medicine bottles and supported by conventional shelf hardware results in tipping the shelf and is, of course, disastrous.

To install the shelf supports in a cabinet, such as a medicine cabinet, wherein the side walls 14 are provided with horizontal slots 13, right and left hand pairs of supports are mounted at the same elevation on the side walls with their lips 24 toward the front of the cabinet, as shown in Figure 1. Each support is mounted on the wall 14 by simultaneously sliding upper and lower tongues 11 and 12 (Figure 2) into two adjacent slots 13. This attaches the supports to the cabinet walls and prevents them from tipping. A shelf 23 is then slid into a right and left hand pair of mounted shelf supports with the bead 36 to the front of the cabinet and with the plain edge passing between the horizontal tip portions 'cabinet as described above.

33 and 34 and the'horizontal shelf supporting sections 18, 19 and 21 to the rear of the cabinet. The downward bend 22 at the forward edge of rear horizontal section 18 prevents lodging of the rear edge of shelf 23 at the forward edge of section 18.

After the shelf 23 has been'slid into the cabinetas far as it will go between the pair of supports, the lower portion of head 36 rests upon the-upper edge of lip 24. Each end of the shelf 23 is thentapped firmly with the heel of the hand against the bead 36. This causes the bead 36 to force downwardly the lip 24, as shown in phantom in Figure 2, and'causes the shelf 23 to snap into position as shown in solid lines. The resiliently mounted lip 24 snaps back into position and prevents shelf 23 from moving forward out of the pair of supports.

,As previously described, lip 24 and fingers 28 and 29 make the installed shelf 23 slide-proofand tilt-proof.

Each one of the shelves 23 is, in turn, installed in the Bach shelf is removed from the cabinet for cleaning, or any other desired purpose, by lifting one of the pair of shelf supports out of its mounting by sliding the upper and lower tongues 11 and 12 thereof out of the slots 13. The shelf 23 is then the structural and design details of the shelf supports described above will occur to one skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is understood that such changes and modifications in the structure, design and details of the specific embodiment of my invention illustrated and described above may be made within the'scope of the appended claims without departing from the spirit of the invention.

What I claim is:

l. A shelf support comprising a vertical support plate, two tongues aligned vertically and formed integrally on the support plate for engaging slots in a vertical wall, three coplanar horizontal portions formed integrally on the plate and adapted to support an end of a shelf, a rounded forward edge formed integrally on the rear horizontal portion; an upwardly extending lip formed integrally on the forward edge of the front horizontal porformed integrally on the vertical support plate, one of the fingers being positioned between the rear horizontal portion and the middle horizontal portion and the other finger being positioned between the middle horizontal portion and the front horizontal portion, and a horizontal portion formed integrally on each of the fingers for overlying an end of a shelf and for maintaining said end in a horizontal position against tilting.

2. A shelf support member comprising a base plate provided on one face thereof with means adapting the base plate to be detachably secured onto a vertical side wall with the upper edge thereof in a substantially horizontal plane, a shelf-end supporting platform extending outwardly from the said upper edge of said base plate from the opposite face of the base plate, said platform having a substantially uniform width adapted to engage one end of a shelf disposed thereon, a plurality of spaced apart upstanding hook-ended fingers on said upper edge of said base plate, the hook ends of said fingers overlying and being disposed in close spaced parallel relationship to said supporting platform, the spacing therebetween being adapted to restrain a shelf end seated on said platform against vertical movement thereon, said platform having a front portion provided with an integral resilient lip adapted to engage the side edge of a shelf end to secure the shelf end against horizontal movement.

3. The combination of claim 2, said platform consisting of a plurality of spaced-apart sections and said hookended fingers being disposed in the space gaps therebetween.

4. A shelf support member comprising a base plate provided on one face thereof with means adapting the base plate to be detachably secured onto a vertical side wall with the upper edge thereof in a substantially horizontal plane, a shelf end supporting platform extending outwardly from the said upper edge of said base plate from the opposite face of the base plate, said platform having a substantially uniform width adapted to engage one end of a shelf disposed thereon, a plurality of spaced apart upstanding hook-ended fingers on said upper edge of said base plate, the hook ends of said fingers overlying and being disposed in close spaced parallel relationship to said supporting platform, the spacing therebetween being adapted to restrain a shelf end seated on said platform against vertical movement thereon, said platform consisting of a plurality of spaced apart sections, the front section thereof being provided with a flexing slit end section, the side edge of which slit end is provided with a vertically upstanding flange adapted to engage the side edge of a shelf end disposed on said platform to secure the shelf end against horizontal movement.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,915,727 Friedemann June 27, 1933 2,576,865 Vanderveld Nov. 27, 1951 2,720,318 Etrick 00!. 11, 1955 

